London: Hammer wins the Festival FIDE Open

12/17/2009 – The London Chess Classic was not just about super-grandmasters. The congress was remarkably inclusive and catered for chessplayers of all abilities, from children who had just mastered how the "horsey" moved, right up to the world rated number one. The nine-round Swiss Open was won by a Norwegian prodigy (yes, there are more than one of those), GM Jon Ludvig Hammer. Big pictorial report.

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London Festival FIDE Open

By John Saunders

Ranked immediately below the Classic itself was the London Festival FIDE-Rated
Open, a nine-round Swiss tournament which ran from December 8-15 (with rounds
four and five both played on Friday 11 December). With a first prize of £2,500,
and overall prize fund of £8,250, it attracted a strong field of 125 players,
including nine grandmasters and 17 IMs.

The FIDE Open at the Olympia Centre in London

The highest rated competitor was Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway, and he was expected
to be pursued by a posse of 2500+ rated England grandmasters, namely Stuart
Conquest, Simon Williams, Mark Hebden of England and a few others of a slightly
lesser rating. One of the aforementioned posse was sensationally unhorsed in
the first round by an English amateur: Stuart Conquest lost to the 61-year-old,
2119-rated Alan Barton of Hastings Chess Club.

Top seed and winner: Jon Ludvig GM Hammer, 2588, NOR, 8.0/9

The posse never quite caught up with the Norwegian thoroughbred. Jon Ludvig
is just a few months older than his superstar compatriot who was busy winning
the Classic in the next room. He won his first four games, drew with Hebden,
and then won games against three titled players: Loeffler, McDonald and Cherniaev.
A last-round draw put him one point ahead of the field. His 8/9 was enough for
a TPR of 2756.

Second place was shared by Simon Williams, Mark Hebden and Jovanka Houska.
This was a particularly good result for the 2008 and 2009 British Women’s
Champion. Jovanka also has a connection with Norway, of course... she is married
to a Norwegian and now lives there. She survived two long defensive games against
GMs Hebden and Wells and won her final game for a TPR of 2520.

23...Nxb4! A bolt from the blue and the beginning of an extraordinary
concept. 24.Nxb4 Qe7! 25.Qa7. The only good way to defend the c5 knight.
But now the queen finds itself out of play on the wrong side of the board. 25...b6
26.Nca6 Bh3! Having lured the queen and knights to the queenside, Black
strikes at the kingside. 27.Rb1. 27.Qxc7 Qe2 28.Ra1 Re8 would force
White to give the piece back with 29.Nc2 Qxc2 and his position would then be
hopeless. 27...Re8 28.Nc2 Qe2 29.Nab4

Now Black finds a very precise move. 29...h5! 30.Qa1. White thinks his
queen has arrived back in time to join the defence but it is already too late.

30...Qxf2+!! 31.Kxf2 Re2+ 32.Kxf3 [32.Kg1 f2#] 32...Bg4+. Revealing
the point of 29...h5, which was to support this check. 33.Kf4 Bh6# An
exquisite finish. 0-1. [Click
to replay]

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.